Stainless ROA

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Lunie

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So I actually held one of the beasties. They are about as rare as unicorns and hen's teeth as far as I have seen.

Anyway, I found one for sale at pawn shop in a nearby town. It was beat, and in poor looking shape. I picked it up, examined, removed the cylinder, etc. It had the legendary billboard on the side of the barrel. The sights were decent to behold, but with my hand on the grip it just felt unwieldy.

But it did not come home with me. The price was $500, IIRC.



I don't FEEEEEL like I missed out on a bargain. Am I somehow wrong?
 
What was the barrel length? $500 is no bargain for a stainless 7.5-inch ROA that isn't in excellent shape. The fixed-sight 5.5-inch is much more rare, but even then, condition matters; might have been a fair price if it had the shorter barrel and could be cleaned up. From your description, though, sounds like you made a good call.

Just by way of comparison, I have a beautiful stainless 7.5-inch ROA I have been thinking about selling, as I recently picked up a long sought after 5.5-inch specimen. I don't think I'd expect to get more than about $450 shipped for it.
 
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I had one, once, until it got stolen by a burglar when I was at work. I later picked up a blued one. Sure liked that stainless, but 500 is a bit much. I picked up my blued 7.5"er for $97.50 plus tax at a LGS that just wanted out of black powder. Well, I helped him out. :D
 
rare as they were only made for a few years in comparison to the other options.
Sought after, most definitely, as there are a lot of SASS shooters who drool over them and some almost appear to be in the mood to mug a 5.5" FS owner.

Been looking at them on the online auctions. Seems that average for a blued 5.5 FS is around $500 with box and papers, stainless at a little more.
Whilst you can get 7.5" for around $250 if you are lucky.
 
Rare as in:

I'm not sure I know (personally) a single ROA owner.
I essentially never see them for sale at any of the local shops or gun shows.

Here in internet-land they are a lot more common. ;)
 
I have had one in stainless for a almost 25 years. It's has adjustable sights and a 7.5" barrel, of course, as nothing else was offered at the time.
 
Prairie Dawg - Seven stainless and two blued ROA. You are soley responsible for the scarcity of ROA. I still have one that you didn't manage to snag in 1978. I paid $172 for it from Gil Hebard.
 
Saw another one today. Stainless, 7.5" barrel, in pretty decent shape. I think they wanted something in the neighborhood of $400 for this one. I just can't remember if it had adjustable or fixed sights.

Would this one be worth going back for?
 
Jist paid $350 fer this cutey :D

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That's an R&D tho and i'm gonna be payin fer a factory cylinder.

There was one o' these just pulled from GB because at $757.00 the reserve was not met.
 
Well, no one is lining up to relieve me of it if I end up with buyer's remorse... (Yet...) :p

I'm still not overly impressed with these anochronistic abominations, but I'm almost willing to give them an honest try.
 
"...anachronistic abominations..." ???? Those puppies are RUGERS and the 20th Century application of a Remington NMA! Very nice weapons; whether they deliver a slug from a brass cartidge or straight out of the cylinder!
If they were ever produced a revolver with a smoother action than the K-Frame S&W; I'd have A BUNCH of Rugers in the house! But NEVER an auto-loader..... I once had a bad experience with a P-85 (or -89 or some such); and it just turned me off to the whole idea of a Ruger semi-automatic. :what:

Ruger makes some damfine revolvers; and one powered by "Holy Black" is just too cool. If'n I didn't love my hay-burnin' cayuses so much, one of them might ( I said MIGHT) be sold to finance a couple of ROA's. ;)
 
Lordy! Your passionate words have changed my mind. (Right...)

I made no insult to Ruger firearms. I like them well enough. But the ROA is just an odd duck. If I wanted a modern revolver to shoot cartridges through, I'd buy one of those, not convert an Old Army. And so far, my cravings for cap and ball are satisfied by reproductions of period guns. (Colt pattern, to be specific) The ROA lacks historic significance. It isn't a copy of the NMA, but the resemblences don't earn them any points with me. I don't "get" the ROA's appeal, but I'm at least attempting to give them an honest chance. :p

I'll just keep my eye out for the $200 yard sale find for now...
 
The 'appeal' is that the ROA is a better gun than any of the Italian (and Colt 2nd Gen) replica offerings. Period.

But, if it's important what the gun looks like or attempts to be (but isn't), then perhaps one could overlook that.
 
An ROA that was mostly rust, and looked like it was uses as a dog's chew toy just went for $311.00 plus $25 shipping on Gunbroker. That makes the one your looking at a steal in comparison.
 
ruger is still making good on its lifetime warranty on these guns. so a broken one is still worth something.they may do you like they did me and replace your broken one yu gave 200 buks for with a new centerfire pistol of your choice from ther catalog.
 
robhof

I would check with Ruger 1st, as they're trying to distance themselves from the ROA, however a friend got a P85 for $50 that the owner had shot himself in the foot with, it was in a bad way, but turns out it was recalled, he sent it in and got a new P90, so it's worth a try.:confused::D
 
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